NASA highlights photo of the Moon that took two months to capture

Astrophotography can be really easier and really difficult, and sometimes the most difficult attempts at capturing the cosmos pay off immensely. This is one of those examples.

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Astrophotographer Betul Turksoy captured what is called an analemma, which is a figure 8 curve that is created from the elliptical curve of the Moon. Where it gets difficult is the requirements to take the above photograph. The above photograph was featured on NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day on October 10, 2022, where it's explained to capture an analemma, typically of the Sun, the camera needs to be planted in a single spot and the time of the time of the Sun marked for the first photograph. Then, take a photograph at the same time each day for one year.

However, a Moon analemma comes with some caveats. According to NASA, on average, the Moon returns to the same position in the sky about 50 minutes and 29 seconds later each day, which means to achieve a true Moon analemma, every photograph needs to be taken 50 minutes 29 seconds later each day. The duration of the photography bout will be one lunar month. Due to the above taking two months to capture, it technically shows a double lunar analemma.

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As for the image itself, Turksoy captured it over Kayseri, Turkey, during July and August, with a backdrop of orange, red, and pink twilight, making the Moon even more pronounced.